Farage deploys the rottweiler to distract from awkward £5m gift story | John Crace

Zia Yusuf’s mad idea of building detention centres for illegal immigrants exclusively in areas that vote Green works a treat

It’s a classic from the Donald Trump playbook: everything’s been going a bit tits up, so you create a distraction. Get everyone looking in the wrong direction. Last week was the worst in months for Reform. First the party was pegged back in the opinion polls, then the Guardian revealed Nigel Farage had been given a £5m handout by Christopher Harborne, a Thai-based crypto dealer. A donation that Nige had never thought to declare.

Not the best look for a party leader who claims to be a man of the people. I mean why don’t we all get by on multi-million pound handouts from our friends. The best you can say is that at least Nige wasn’t trying to defraud the state by claiming universal credit. Since then, Reform have been on the back foot. Sending out countless press releases trying to explain the situation away. Ones that often contradicted each other.